The Little Prince
by NovaStars42
Summary: After a mishap Sasuke finds himself passing his son off on an old childhood friend. Years later his son returns a savage without any idea who he is and Sasuke must risk keeping his son in the leaf village or send him away again, possibly for good.
1. Chapter 1

After the collapse of the village hidden in the sound, or rather more importantly, the small countries sounding the hidden sound, the wilderness around the area became dangerous, more so then it already was, however not for Riruko. The black haired girl traveled lightly, mostly on the back of a large boar, carrying few things with her. She didn't need much, she had no problem curling up to the feral hog at night or finding her own food for her dinner.

The forest grew wild, no people this far out to worry about per say besides the occasional bandit and traveler, however in such a state, it allowed for the flora and fauna to get much larger then it would have previously.

Trees grew much larger than any shinobi could jump from and underbrush grew so quickly any path that was not trumped down daily was over grown.

Walking slowly and lazily down a small mound of dirt, Riruko leaned back as her friend's hooves traversed the well packed ground, just has he did everyday.

"Buta, do you hear something strange?" The black eyed girl asked the pig, who grunted in response and stopped in his tracks. The pig bent his neck just a bit, looking behind him. His girl never spoke much, he knew something must be wrong.

He could hear it to. Someone was coming, moving slowly but moving none the less. They walked in moss so as to cover their foot steps, however it mattered not to the bonded pair. They knew every inch of this forest and being the sensory type, knew the footfalls of each creature in it.

"I think I know them," the dark haired girl muttered, Buta carefully maneuvering his trotters to double back the way he'd just came. The group they'd heard was not far behind them.

"I'll be..." She whispered. Her dark eyes looked astonished as her mouth fell a little slack, "Sasuke Uchiha."

"Riruko," he offered, his own dark eyes looked somewhat defeated, the man himself looked tired however his body language was still as proud and rigidly cold was ever. He hand a deep frown upon his face and a sword on his hip, elbow resting on it. He wore black pants, his legs wrapped from mid calf to his ankles with dirty bandages, his top half wore a V-neck that was almost t- shirt looking with one of his family crests around his neck on a chain that reminded her of his brother. A purple rope served as a belt and sling for his weapon. Over all he was filthy from traversing the wilds.

"You grew up," she commented. She herself wore animal skins and went barefoot, the bottoms of her feet so dirty it matched her knee length hair and eyes. She was tan from the sun and her skin was like leather from the elements. The tan helped hide the dirt she surmised, priding herself on her much cleaner appearance than her friend's.

"As did you," the seemingly depressed man stated flatly. She was five years older, of course she would always seem grown up compared to him.

"Your family hasn't been in such a while, I'm afraid I don't have anything for you," she explained in as few words as she could.

"My family has grown a considerable amount smaller since we were children. There are only two of us remaining," Sasuke didn't give any other information besides that and she did not ask.

"Itachi?" She asked. She could almost see a feeling of dread wash over him.

"No," he said quietly. She nodded solemnly, she knew how much he loved his brother when they were young.

"My condolences," the breeze nearly swept away her words with the leaves.

"I need to ask a favor of the Inoshishi clan. My.. My father did you all a great favor in the past, I know," Sasuke's face changed to something unreadable, his tone very proper.

"I will see," she answered, hoping he also got the message hidden in her words that she and Buta were also the only ones left.

Sasuke turned his back then and walked away, not taking a single look back to see if she would fallow. Buta grunted, asking in his own language what he should do, but a simple squeeze with her heels got him moving foreword trailing Sasuke.

His camp was a mess. A blond headed man clad in black and orange sat at one end, resting on a rotted log, while a silver (almost blue really) haired swordsmen sat next to a bispectacled red headed woman clutching an ebony haired baby on a freshly fallen tree.

The air in the camp was stale with tension.

"You found her Sasuke?" The blond was quick to ask before they'd even come to a stop. Sasuke simply nodded.

"Great, here, take him," the red haired woman spat, standing up and stomping to Sasuke so quickly it could have burned a hole in the forest. She shoved the baby, which was clearly Sasuke's into his arms, and walked away, arms folded, and took her seat next to the swordsman. She wouldn't make eye contact with any of them, but was clearly happy to be rid of the baby.

"Tch," the blond man was by Sasuke's side, scowling at the woman's actions, taking the baby carefully from him and rocking him as he began to fuss. The blond smiled warmly bouncing the baby boy softly.

"I'm Naruto, by the way, I'd shake you hand but I'm a little busy," he beamed. Riruko smiled politely and nodded. She was glad his hands were full, she had no desire to touch him.

"That's Karin and Suigetsu, don't mind them," Naruto assured her, earning another nod. The woman, Karin glared daggers at him all while Sasuke stood awkwardly. Riruko was beginning to get an idea what favor Sasuke had in mind.

"No," she said firmly. That was the end of the conversation in her eyes, a simple no.

"Riruko," Sasuke said in a tone that might have been confused for pleading, "I need this favor, I don't know what else to do."

"This is no place for a child!" She scolded, Buta grunting in agreement.

"It's been nearly eleven years since I've been here last, I didn't know the compound no longer existed," Sasuke was getting frustrated in his own cool headed way,

"No," she stated again and she meant it.

"You must!" The ebony haired man insisted, "you owe me, your-" Sasuke began.

"Do not mention my father!" Riruko spoke over him. Once she realized how loud she'd been, she put her head down and sighed. If he was going to play that card then she must. Her father did owe something to Fugaku, even if they were both long dead.

"I will agree to look after him, however, you must make this trade of equal!" She demanded, her boar partner growing restless under her. Sasuke only nodded and then took his infant son from Naruto, handing him softly to Riruko.

"His name is Itachi."


	2. Chapter 2

Riruko rocked Itachi that night, on the other side of the clearing from the camps fire. She didn't much like fire, however the baby didn't much like being away from Karin, so eventually, the pair compromised. Riruko sat behind Karin, back to the fire giving Itachi full view of his mothers back.

The tension in the group had not faltered. In fact it very well might have been thick enough to cut with a dull knife. Naruto never left the rotten log, Karin and Suigetsu always returned to their seat opposite him, Sasuke sat sort of awkwardly in the middle, leaning more towards Naruto.

"I've got to know just what the hells going on here, somebody explain this mess," the blond pipped up, his tone of frustration was matched Karin's as she spat,

"Sasuke raped me that's what."

" I did not rape you!" Sasuke sounded surprised, maybe even offended. Riruko turned around.

"When I say stop, I mean stop! When I say don't cum inside, I mean that too!" Her language was sort of corse, Riruko thought, however she reminded herself that's just what outsiders sound like.

"You can't just change your mind halfway though," Sasuke insisted, a deeply unhappy look set on his face that vaguely reminded Riruko of his father.

"Yes I can!" Karin shouted back, " anyone can you asshole! Stop means stop!" She was standing now, hands on her hips, intently at Sasuke who was still, refusing to react. He refused to let her win. Suigetsu was facing away from her, so Riruko was unable to see his reaction, but Naruto looked shocked.

"Did you really Sasuke?" He asked in a tone that matched his expression while turning to the pale skinned man. Sasuke put his head in his right hand, sighed, and then raked his fingers through his hair.

"Naruto, please," he breathed but when he looked up only to see his friends harden face he got up, stalking off into the forest.

Riruko rose too, moving Itachi to her hip. After shaking her sleeping pig partner awake, she asked in their silent language to watch the campsite while she went with Sasuke. It wasn't safe for any of these outsides to be here alone. Buta got up and hobbled over to the circle around the fire, plopping himself down in Sasuke's spot on the ground. With his eyes placed on the side of his head he could see almost 360°.

Riruko walked quickly after Sasuke. She needed to catch him before something else did. Her eyes readjusted to the the dark after leaving fire as she jogged the last few feet to Sasuke. Itachi fussed, threatening to cry now that he was without his mother until Sasuke took him, stopping and holding him at arms length.

"All my life I was after one thing, I wanted to kill Itachi after what he did to our family. He killed our parents in front of me, but after I killed him, and he told me what really happened that night," he paused, leaving out the end of his story, "I just wanted," he paused, maybe thinking, maybe on the edge of tears, "and now look at you."

Itachi smiled at his father, he had his mothers eyes but it never dampened the fact that his face was the spitting image of Sasuke.

The eighteen year old Uchihia handed his child back to his surrogate mother. She held him tightly as he began to fuss again and bounced him slowly. Tired eyes drifted to sleep as his whimpering quieted.

"I saw you last when you were seven," she whispered as not to wake Itachi, hoping to stop Sasuke before he turned into a mess. She fondly remembered that summer she was twelve. That summer she played with the Uchihia siblings while their parents traded more modern things for medical herbs and items that could only be found in this forest. She remembered that summer they'd bought a much larger supply than normal. That was the year, she surmised, that the Uchihia clan most likely had been wiped out.

"We had so much fun when we were kids," Sasuke returned, his tone sounded more like it had before, calm and level. The way Sasuke looked at her, she thought maybe that look was regret, like he was sorry.

He should be. Itachi had been a good friend of hers, long before Sasuke had come. He'd come to visit her once after the massacre, wrapped in a black coat with red clouds. Her father was dying, ailing hard with a deep cough. There was no medicine to help either of them, Itachi was going blind and he was in a lot of pain, not just in his eyes. Something deep within him was wrong and nothing she tried could curb it the hurting so Itachi left, never to be seen again in this forest.

Riruko was still living at the compound still, the outer walls crumbling to the forest, her family dispersing until there were only a few left, the other elders, and they passed in a matter of three years. Only her father hung on, his lungs worsening until finally the house was quiet of his wheezing.

"Riruko," Sasuke's voice snapped her from the thoughts of the past and she was glad he did.

"We're going to leave tomorrow, I'm not exactly on the best terms with the village," Sasuke sighed. He didn't want to leave his child, he felt like he was dumping his son, abandoning him.

"Your son is in good hands Sasuke. I will protect him to the best of my ability."

Eight years later

Today, Sasuke couldn't help but feel a little off. Since the leveling of the village, quite a few things had changed. The Uchiha compound where he'd been living before he defected was never rebuilt. Though the roads were the same again, he'd been forced to build a new house. After inheriting everything after the massacre, money was never a problem, so the Uchiha compound was rebuilt in miniature, and the left over land was sold, and that was all fine and dandy until he realized he'd built the house to live in alone.

Not that Sasuke had always felt off, in fact most days he did alright, but the more he thought about it, the more he tried to figure out what was wrong, the longer it took to realize today was his sons eighth birthday.

For years he'd always dreamed of his son showing up at his door, Riruko and the pig in tow, to tell him that he'd always wanted to meet him, to tell him that he wanted to live with his father, but he knew that was impossible. Riruko would never set foot in the village, or so he thought until he heard a knock at the door.

Getting up from his armchair infront of the tv, Sasuke wondered with a scowl set on his face who could possibly be at his door. Swinging the door open, the eldest Uchihia couldn't believe his eyes. His face in miniature was standing, looking him in the eyes, hair down to his shoulders and a half grown, spotted hog at his feet.

"Are you Sasuke Uchiha?" The boy asked, his voice brave beyond his years.

"Yes," Sasuke was careful with his words. The last thing he wanted was to scare the child away. He kept his face emotionless per usual and his tone calm, with hints or warmth.

"My auntie sent me here to find you. She said you knew where I came from," the boy spoke with the mannerism of an adult, but with the words of a child.

"I do, in fact, know where you came from, yes," Sasuke tried to match his sons tone, "why don't you come in for some tea?"

The boy fallowed Sasuke through the house, and Sasuke noted that his son was very timid. He doubted that Itachi had ever been in a house before, much less seen anything inside one.

"Mr. Why do you have the outside inside?" Itachi asked, the strange place not dampening his spirit. One of the rice paper doors to the courtyard was open, the deer scare clunking rhythmically along with the water in the koi pond.

"It's called a courtyard, I built my house around it because I wanted to remember nature," Sasuke lied well, not that the boy would have known the difference.

"My auntie calls me Koton, my boars name is Buu, he's one of aunties pig's piglets!" Looking back at his son, Sasuke couldn't believe his ears. Riruko allowed his son to think he was named after a piglet? A man of the Uchiha blood named after a pig? That was enough to make him ball his fists.

"Why did your auntie send you here, Koton?," the elder kept his tone even. The last thing he wanted was to scare his son on their first meeting.

"I asked her one day where I came from, cuz she's my auntie, you know, not my mama, and I don't got a dad, so one day she just brought be here and told me to find you," the boy explained as they reached the tea room. Sasuke motioned for the boy to take a seat as he excused himself to make them some tea. When he returned, he found the boy sitting cross legged, with his head supporting his hands, elbows on the table. His mother must be rolling in her grave.

After serving tea and taking his seat, Sasuke watched as the animal skin clad boy stared blankly at the cup. Sasuke rose his to his mouth and took a sip, hoping Koton would get the drift. Of course he did, he was inexperienced, but not stupid.

"So, where'd I come from?" The boy blurted, never in his life had Sasuke seen a child so forward, not even Naruto when they were children.

"Contrary to your belief, you do have a father, and you have a mother too," Sasuke spoke slowly, as bad as he wanted to just come out and tell the kid the was he dad, something told him he needed to put it delicately, "long ago, I began traveling with a girl named Karin, to help me in this sort of group out to try to kill my brother, and after everything was all said and done, we became involved with each other," Sasuke explained, however he was cut off mid sentence.

"You guys did it? I'm not dumb, I know how baby's are made," Koton blurted, Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. The loud mouthed kid didn't even seem embarrassed after that outburst, and Sasuke was sure he looked stupid with his mouth hanging open.

"Get on with the story!" The boy urged, "what's that got to do with me?"

"Well," Sasuke cleared his throat, " yes we were romantically involved, however, there were two mishaps that came from it. The first I won't go into detail about, but the second was a child."

It took a few seconds for it to all sink in for the boy. Sasuke could almost see him putting together the puzzle in his head.

"Your my daddy? How come I ain't never seen you before?" The child's face wrinkled in confusion, frustration, and anger alike, though his tone sounded like he might cry any second now.

"It was beyond my control, there were some people that insisted that you live with your auntie," Sasuke explained, thinking back to the meeting he'd had with the council. When Karin refused his child, he hadn't been aloud to take him. The elders insisted he was not loyal to the village, that the newborn should be destroyed less it be used for a weapon or compromise Sasuke's agreement to return to the village and pay his debts. Tsunade, the old hang, he couldn't believe it when she stuck her neck out for him, and allowed him to place his young son in the care of someone else.

The child was silent save for a few sniffles. Sasuke wondered if he should try to comfort him, though he wasn't any good at that.

"Mr, uh, Mr. Sasuke, are you gonna send me away again now I'm back? I,uh, I wanna know you, cuz, I didn't know I had a daddy," it was evident by the sad tone that his son was near tears. Sasuke couldn't lie to the boy, he had no idea what would happen now.

"I'd like for you to stay. It's not up to me though, you must understand. Let's change the subject, move on to something more fun," Sasuke suggested, his face had remained an unwavering calm, though on the inside he was becoming more and more stressed out. The last thing he wanted was a crying kid.

"Like what?" The boy asked, rubbing his eyes with his fists.

"Tell me about what it's been like living with your auntie," Sasuke suggested. Sure it was a dumb, top of the head topic, but he needed desperately to get the child's mind on something else, anything.

"Well uh, we live in the forest, n, auntie lets me ride on the back of her big pig, and we set traps for food, n, then we go check other traps, and uh, we eat n go to bed. Sometimes we find berries n sometimes we go to this big uh, house thing when it's cold but it's not like your house,it ain't hardly got no walls," the child chattered. With his bad grammar and ugly habits, it was going to take forever to get him looking like a respectable member of the Uchiha clan. He hated to even think about things he hadn't seen yet.

"Oh yeah, my auntie said to bring this to you," that got Sasuke's attention. The boy produced a letter from hand made parchment from somewhere on his person. Hesitantly, Sasuke took it.

'Dear Sasuke,' it read, ' I find myself returning the greatest gift ever given to me. He's been asking for years now about a mom and a dad, and now is the time for him to find out about them. My health is failing, it's the same damn thing that got my father, bless it all! Remember that I told you that you owed me for this? Forget it. I just want you to take good of care of him, he is just as much my son as he is yours.'

Sasuke's arms felt heavy as he closed the note. Looking back at his boy, he knew there was nothing he could do for Riruko.

"How about I get you and, and the pig set up for bed, alright? You come with me, however the pig must stay in the courtyard," Sasuke instructed, and watched Itachi set the piglet gently in the courtyard. They used the same silent language that Riruko and Buta used,an understanding of partners, and the pig never cried, not even once, as Sasuke shut the door.

Of course Sasuke had built many bedrooms in his house, though only two populated the upper level. Sasuke's large master room was opposite the top of the stairwell, and a much smaller room was directly next to it, made just for this occasion.

"This is my room? Did you know I was coming?" Itachi asked, looking up at him with eyes that would forever remind him of a romance gone south.

"No, I didn't," Sasuke didn't want to tell him that the plain white bed and desk had been there since he had been given away, just in case. Little Itachi seemed content with that answer. The boy climbed into bed and looked around, smiling only slightly before laying down and curling up like an animal.

"Good night," came a suddenly very tired voice. It was just as Sasuke thought, the boy was exhausted from his journey.

"Night," Sasuke returned as he shut off the light and closed the door. Calmly he took himself into his bedroom before he let himself fall apart.

He was half naked in seconds, when had it gotten so hot? How long had his teeth been grit? Did he still have sake in the house? Heaving a heavy sigh, he finally pricked up the phone to call the only logical person.

"Naruto, meet me at my house at nine tomorrow morning. Bring a set of cloths for an eight year old."


	3. Chapter 3

A confused Naruto meet his friend promptly at nine with a set if tiny cloths in his hand. The shirt was a little too long and the pants were a horrendous shade of orange, but it was better than animal skins Sasuke surmised.

"Mr. Sasuke, I don't like these," the child complained, but Sasuke choose to ignore it. Naruto, who was standing in his front room laughing, received a dirty look from the unhappy father standing in the hallway.

"He calls you mr. Sasuke?" The blonde asked, stifling a further outburst.

"What am I supposed to call him?" Little Itachi asked, putting his hands on his hips and sticking out his lower lip in a pout.

"I dunno, dad?" Naruto suggested, no longer amused by the bratty child. Sasuke seemed slightly mortified and the boy seemed to be considering it. Riruko hadn't raised a constant complainer but Itachi was none the less an indecisive child that hated change. This house, those cloths, the food and manners, he hated everything. Especially when it came time to leave and Itachi realized he had to deal with this all day.

Sasuke hadn't lay his eyes on Karin in months. The two avoided each other like the plague and never spoke, though in a village it's nearly impossible to never run into each other. They'd been fortunate enough that they'd never been forced to work together on a mission or had to be in the same place for very long, but that didn't mean Sasuke didn't know where the red haired woman lived?

The ruby eyed boy was excited, unaware of the problem between his parents, little Itachi wore a smilie as he made his journey across town, much more excited than his father was to see his mother. Sasuke was less than thrilled. Naruto accompanied them, smiling awkwardly and lagging behind. Sasuke had been and still was his best friend and Sasuke needed support, though this situation was less than desirable and that was proven to him upon arriving at the five story apartment building.

"Maybe we should just send him in alone, I mean, if your this scared," Naruto joked, elbowing his black haired companion, but Sasuke was in no mood for jokes. Scowling, he took ahold of his sons hand, and lead the way down the hall to apartment three, home to one Karin Uzumaki.

It was Naruto who decided to man up and knock on his cousins door, because after all, bravery is an important trait for the Hokage in training. Karin came to the door after a few moments, her hair wet and a cigarette in her hand, and nearly slammed the door on the three of them if it weren't for Naruto's shoe.

"God damn it! Go away! I don't want to see any of you here ever fucking again, get lost!" She shouted in a tone so hot it could have branded a bull.

"Karin, open the door!" Sasuke returned, his tone short and annoyed. With enough force from himself and help from Naruto, they pushed back the door and invited themselves it, dragging little Itachi along with them.

"Oh no, get him out of here, he's the fucking last thing I want to see," the woman seethed. She'd seen her son, no, the product of her rape out of the corner of her eye and seeing him was enough.

"Karin, Stop it, something has got to be done about him," Sasuke started, but Karin cut him off.

"He's your problem, fucker! Get out of my house before I call the police!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, and she continued screaming until a vase hit the ground and shattered, the noise catching the attention of all the adults in the room.

"I'm sorry I broke your, uh, whatever that is, but, uh, I just have a question," Itachi looked very humble for as brash as he was, his arms hanging by his side as he looked at them with pleading eyes. Karin did not respond, she only folded her arms and glared at him, a deep scowl set on her face.

"I just, um, well your my mom aren't you?" The boy asked, stepping closer to the woman, but she only backed away with her eyes set on his features.

"Aren't you?" He asked again. This time Karin sighed, adjusted her glasses and answered,

"I am."

"My name is Koton, I'm happy to meet you," the boy smiled as best he could. Even Karin had to admit it was a pretty good poker face for an eight year old.

"Karin," she returned. Something inside her didn't feel right being mean to him, after all it wasn't really his fault. It was silent for what seemed like an eternity. She couldn't look away from him, no matter how hard she tried. Those were her eyes in his head, he was half of her, quite litterally, and it was all she could do to hide her tears.

"Karin, we have a problem, as you can see," Sasuke began after clearing his throat, "I'm sure that the village already knows he's here, and it's not like anyone listens to a thing Tsunade says anymore."

Sasuke spoke the truth. Though Tsunade had always been a just Hokage, the village council was having a harder time with her not only because of her aging state, but her ever growing alcohol problem. The group seemed royally screwed at this point. Sasuke's only option to save his son was dead and though Karin was being civil now, it still couldn't do a thing to help their case. Team hawk was, and would probably always be, on the outs with the village.

"So just explain what ever is wrong, it's not like he's a weapon of god damn mass destruction," the red head sighed, finally taking a seat at her kitchen table.

"I don't think the council be willing to listen to reason now if they wouldn't before, there's got to be someone else we could place him with, er," Sasuke paused to spare a glance at his son. He'd already said he wouldn't send him away, but if he had no other choice, what was he to do? Sasuke sighed, putting his head in his hands, "I need to find a scenario where I could parent him."

"Can't I talk to them Mister, uh, oh... Dad?" Itachi murmured, his bold works quieting as he furthered his sentence. Sasuke raked his fingers though his bangs as he turned to look at his son. He was a dad, wasn't he? God that made him feel old, but he felt proud too.

"No, ita- uh, Koton, no I don't think that's a good idea," Sasuke answered, but when his son asked why not, the orange haired idiot in the room piped up.

"You feelen' pretty alone and confused right now little buddy? Yeah, I know that feeling exactly. But you've got more fire in yu than I've ever seen! Let him stand up for himself Sasuke! We had to when we were kids! "

Sasuke set his jaw and examined what his friend just hold his son. Both he and Naruto had been alone at this point in their lives, and indeed it was very confusing having to do adult things when your just a child, but unlike either of them, Itachi had gone from having no parents to two, well, one and two helpers in a matter of twenty four hours. Little Itachi had no barring on parents, he didn't assume the forest or his 'auntie' had treated him like a child, no, his now dead childhood friend would have expected the upmost maturity, to pull his weight to help them both survive.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Sasuke muttered again, Itachi hadn't had much contact with other humans up until now, he wouldn't know what to say.

"Sasuke, this is important to the kid! You can't do anything for him that he can't himself!" Naruto pointed out, getting excited enough to lean foreward and push his arms on the table. That was true, it was Sasuke that had a problem with the village, not his son. The elder Uchiha looked to his once lover who stared back at him with a blank face. Karin knew her ex-partner, and she knew he was silently asking for her opinion.

"I suppose he doesn't have anything to loose," she sighed, putting out her burned cigarette butt.

Xxx

"The village elders will see you now," the meek woman aiding Sasuke murmured, holding a thick file folder to her chest with worried eyes. She motioned for him to fallow her and Sasuke motioned for his son to join them. The meeting room wasn't particularly large, but it would have been easy to hear a pin drop. Aged faces stared Sasuke down, and he stared right back as his son cowered behind him. The doe eyed woman lay down a file folder in front of the decrepit, living remains of the oldest village elder. He remembered her from when he was a child. Tsunade, sat in the middle, drunk as ever with the rest of the council including the leader of the leaf special ops and the man who ran interrogation.

"Sasuke Uchiha, before we begin, we must remind you we have ruled on this matter perviously, we have condemned your son to exile, why have you brought him back?" The elder woman said, her senile, crochety voice running in his ears.

"I'd like to begin the meeting actually. It's all very relevant," Sasuke tried to explain in a way it wouldn't offend her, however she still seemed just as annoyed.

"Very well, I call this meeting to order on March nineteenth, at twelve noon. Now please, explain," she droned though creeping bones. Why hadn't she just retired already?

"My son has returned to the village on his own accord, he found me, and he is unaware of his banishment. I've brought him here to discuss the problem of his care. The woman I placed him with is, unfortunately, dead," Sasuke did not take his eyes from the elders and he didn't want to. He didn't intent of telling his son that his 'auntie' had passed at all, but when the information was relevant...

"Well, I'm surprised you've even done that, with your ill track record of breaking the rules. We watched him last night and we watched you visit another apartment this morning, care to tell us about it?" The a man to his left rasped.

"I took him to meet his mother for the first time, that is all," Sasuke replied cooly, and he thought that his lack of emotion might be hurting his case rather than helping.

"Yes, well, our ruling still stands. Your mistake is not our problem, may we remind you. We will give you one hour to vacate this boy from your possession and our village," the elder woman leading the meeting grunted, catching Tsunade's eye. She was about to intervene when Little Itachi beat her to it.

"Excuse me, uh, Mr. Sir, and uh ma'am, I'd actually like to talk," Itachi's voice began sort of meekly, but gained strength as he continued, coming out from his hiding spot behind his father. Ten seconds of courage was all he needed o change their minds.

"What is it boy?" The woman hissed, but the boy refused to back down.

"I ain't got no where else to go, see. My mama don't want nothing to do with us, and it ain't Mr. Naruto's job to help, and my auntie can't take care of me no more," Itachi tried to explain, repeating what was already known to them, but what was a surprise to him.

"Your father shouldn't have burned his bridges then, should he?" The woman replied, picking up her items and laying them in a pile, this meeting was over in her eyes.

"No, ma'am, that ain't what im saying. I'm saying that my daddy needs me just as much as I need him, I gotta stay to help him. He's real flustrated and sad, and worried, I can see. My daddy didn't raise me, my auntie did, and auntie wouldn't never teach me lie. She taught me how to not believe them too. Ain't you never had a responsibility before? It's real hard, even if you don't wanna you gotta do it. I gotta be here. This is my responsibility," the kids speech had Sasuke almost blowing a gasket and the elders were near flabbergasted, "I won't hurt nobody, if that's what your scared of. I know better."

Sasuke supposed that his kid would have had better luck than him no matter what, after all, he had betrayed the village not his eight year old innocent son.

"I motion that we give them a trial period," Tsunade slurred, and the rest of the council was quiet for a long moment

"If I hear so much as a squeal about ether of you! And I'm drawing up a list of restrictions as we speak!" the elderly woman threatened. A smilie spread wide on Itachi's features.

"You won't regret it ma'am."

Xxx

Later that night, sitting around the table drinking some sort of special ginger soda, eating bowls of take our ramen, father and son found their first peace together. The time was not bombarded with questions, worries or other, annoying people, just quiet companionship.

"You were very brave today," Sasuke muttered, taking a sip of his drink after. With the glass over his face, we wouldn't have to look his son in the eye.

"Thanks! Auntie always said you gotta stand up for yourself. She had to anyway, after our, er, her family died," the ruby eyed boy replied. He hadn't taken the news of his auntie's death so well after all,and he was having a hard time with the fact they weren't actually related.

"I don't want you to feel like you have to take care of me, I am an adult" Sasuke told him, looking down to stir his noodles with his chop sticks.

"But I do, it's what family does," the boy announced. His personality and bold words were really going to take some getting used to. Truthfully the boy sounded a lot like his name sake. The real Itachi wanted nothing more than to care for him, his only remaining family, even if he had don't it totally with lies.

Things were so simple to little Itachi, he was still an innocent child, and Sasuke wanted to keep it that way.

"You ain't gotta be worried daddy, we're gonna be just fine," Itachi smiled, and Sasuke mocked him.

"We certainly will."

Xxx

So I'll be drawing up a larger, more complex plot here coming, this is not the final chapter!


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